TipWhen des is used in front of a word that starts with a consonant (any letter except a, e, i, o or u), you DO NOT say the s on the end of des: des chiens(some/any) dogs.When des is used in front of a word that starts with a vowel, and most words starting with h, you DO pronounce the s on the end. It sounds like the z in the English word zip: des amis (some/any) friends, des hôtels(some/any) hotels.

2The indefinite article in negative sentences

In English we use words like not and never to indicate that something is not happening or is not true. The sentences that these words are used in are called negative sentences.

I don’t know him.

I never do my homework on time.

In French, you use word pairs like ne … pas (meaning not) and ne … jamais (meaning never) to say that something is not happening or not true. When un, une or des is used after this type of expression, it has to be changed to de.